F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying results: Lando Norris takes pole position

Who will be fastest in Sin City tonight?

Qualifying for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is set to begin, but who takes pole position on the Vegas Strip is anyone’s guess. Changing weather conditions and an evolving track surface have made predictions tough for tonight’s qualifying hour.

During Thursday’s pair of practice sessions, Charles Leclerc led the way in FP1, followed by Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz Jr. rounding out the top five. Leclerc’s time of 1:34.802 came in 0.166 seconds ahead of Albon.

But in the second hour of practice, Lando Norris, who leads the Drivers’ Championship standings by 24 points over teammate Oscar Piastri, topped the timing sheets with a lap of 1:33.602. Kimi Antonelli, Leclerc, Nico Hülkenberg, and Isack Hadjar completed the top five in FP2.

If you thought that was confusing enough, tonight’s third and final hour of practice jumbled the grid even more. With the track still wet from rains that fell earlier in the day, the session began with the drivers working their way around the Las Vegas Strip Circuit with the wet-weather intermediate tires bolted on. Eventually the surface dried out enough for some slick tire runs, and when the checkered flag flew it was last year’s winner, George Russell, atop the timing sheets.

Meanwhile, Piastri and Norris were down in P19 and P20, respectively. That might have been somewhat misleading due to how the session flowed — and Norris bailed out of one of his final push laps after going purple through the second sector, perhaps keeping his full pace close to his vest — but still, what happens later tonight remains a mystery.

We’ll have all of qualifying covered for you here at SB Nation, which starts at 11:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday night. So check back early and often!

Update: Norris takes pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Read on to see how the session unfolded.

Las Vegas Grand Prix provisional grid

Here is the provisional grid for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Results will be filled in throughout the session.

F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying

Here is how the qualifying hour unfolded.

With minutes to go until the start of qualifying, the skies opened, and the rain began to fall again.

Drizzle earlier in the day led to a tricky final hour of practice ahead of qualifying. Intermediate tires were the compound of choice for the first 30-plus minutes of FP3, and those that made the switch to slick tires found the going rather slippery.

When Q1 began, two of the first two drivers to take to the track -- the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll -- took to the circuit with the full wet compound. Most of the other drivers opted for the green-walled intermediates.

Rain was set to end in 14 minutes, but with just 16 minutes remaining in the first segment of qualifying, Q1 was guaranteed to be a wet and perhaps surprising affair.

Pierre Gasly, one of the drivers who took to the grid on the intermediate compound, was quickly called back into his garage to bolt on a set of the full wet tires.

Alonso posted the first time of the session, coming in at 2:03.249.

For comparison, Norris topped FP2 with a 1:33.602.

As the clock struck 12 minutes remaining in the session, every driver on the track was rocketing around the Vegas strip with the full wet tires.

When the clock hit eight minutes remaining in Q1, Gasly was at the top of the table, followed by Oliver Bearman, Stroll, Albon, and Liam Lawson in the top five.

Norris was down in P11 while his two rivals for the Drivers’ Championship -- Piastri and Verstappen -- were in the elimination zone.

Norris jumped up to P2 as the clock hit five minutes remaining, behind only Esteban Ocon. Norris was soon shuffled down to P6 thanks to laps from Carlos Sainz Jr., Piastri, and Verstappen.

As the final laps of Q1 ticked down, the five drivers in the drop zone were Stroll, Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto, Lewis Hamilton, and Yuki Tsunoda. But times were tumbling, so there was still room for improvement.

Bearman then slid off the track and into the barrier at Turn 14, and that set off a chain reaction that ended in disaster for a few different drivers. Albon and Hamilton were behind Bearman and had to lift for a yellow flag, and when Albon went to accelerate again and pick up time -- as he was in the drop zone at that point -- he tagged the wall hard, ending his session.

When the checkered flag flew, Albon, Antonelli, Bortoleto, Tsunoda, and Hamilton were the five drivers eliminated.

When pit lane opened, the first driver to roll out of his garage was none other than Norris, who waited at the front of the queue for Q2 to begin. All 15 drivers took to the circuit with the full wet compound bolted onto their respective challengers.

Norris cut the beam with a 1:53.302 to set the early benchmark, with Russell, Stroll, Lawson, and Gasly rounding out the early top five. Then came Verstappen’s first push lap, which was good to put the four-time Drivers’ Champion into P5.

Piastri’s first effort was only good for 11th.

Times started to tick down, as Norris was shuffled down to P5 thanks to laps from Verstappen, Sainz, Stroll, and Alonso. That became sixth when his teammate came across with a 1:52.680.

At the halfway point of Q2 the five drivers in the elimination zone were Ocon, Hadjar, Gasly, Colapinto, and Hülkenberg.

Hadjar pulled himself out of the drop zone with a tremendous lap that got him into P1 for a moment. Verstappen’s next push lap put him to the top of the timing sheets, just ahead of the VCARB duo of Hadjar and Lawson in P2 and P3, respectively.

When the clock struck three minutes remaining, the five drivers at risk were Leclerc, Bearman, Hülkenberg, Colapinto, and Gasly. Gasly then jumped up into P8, and Leclerc made a jump as well, getting into P6 to pull himself out of the elimination zone.

Norris jumped into P1 as the clock hit a minute remaining, but things were more stressful for his McLaren teammate, and Piastri cut the beam with a lap only good for ninth. With times tumbling, the Australian driver needed to deliver another solid lap to book his spot in Q3.

Piastri’s final push lap in Q2 did not improve his position, but he survived.

Barely, as he advanced in P10 as Gasly’s final lap was good for P7, which dropped Hülkenberg into the drop zone and shuffled Piastri into the final spot in Q3. Hülkenberg, Stroll, Ocon, Bearman, and Colapinto were the five drivers eliminated at the end of Q2.

When it was time for Q3 12 minutes were put on the clock, and it was Leclerc who led the drivers out, followed by the McLaren pair of Norris and Piastri in that order.

The final fight for pole position in Sin City was on, and so were the intermediate tires.

Leclerc set the benchmark with a 1:52.060, but Hadjar went to P1 shortly thereafter, only to be nipped by Sainz as the Williams driver pumped in a lap of 1:50.880. However, the opening laps on the intermediates felt like a warm-up, as the subsequent push laps saw the times truly begin to tumble. Norris went to P1, followed immediately by Piastri, who nipped his McLaren teammate to take the top spot on the timing sheet away from him. Sainz then shuffled Norris down to third with a strong lap, splitting the McLarens.

Norris then jumped to the front with a 1:48.394, more than seven-tenths ahead of Piastri, who was in P2 at that point. A subsequent effort from Piastri pulled him to within 0.577 seconds of Norris, but the clock was under 90 seconds, and time was becoming an issue for the ten drivers remaining.

As those final laps came in, Sainz went to P1 for the moment, only to be nipped by Verstappen a moment later. But the two McLarens were still on the track, and Norris was on a thunderous effort behind them. He slid through the chicane through Turns 14, 15, and 16, but was able to get the speed when he needed it to take pole position just ahead of Verstappen.

Piastri settled for fifth place behind his two title rivals.

But for Norris, this marks three pole positions in a row as the McLaren driver looks to inch closer to his first Drivers’ Championship.